For Aldridge and Roy, a new dynamic

In the Trail Blazers locker room, there are roughly eight long strides between the lockers of Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.

During their first two years with the Blazers, that distance might as well been have eight miles.

"I don't feel we really knew each other," Roy said. "And I don't feel like we went that extra step to try and get to know each other."

Added Aldridge: "We would talk to each other, but we never did anything above and beyond that."

On a team last season that became very close through group dinners, movie excursions, and pile-in cab rides, the team's two stars had a definite, yet unspoken, distance between them.

They both considered the other a good teammate and in casual terms, a friend. But when they talked, it was, as Roy put it, "about business."

By no means did they dislike each other. But as each departed Portland and headed their separate ways for the summer -- Roy to Seattle and Aldridge to Dallas -- they knew their relationship wasn't right. And they knew that as pillars of the franchise, that relationship had to change if the Blazers were to live up to the buzz as a team on the rise.

It was an uncomfortable feeling for both, for how does one broach something that is so tacit, so vague, yet so real?

As it turns out, it happened naturally. It started with a heart-to-heart talk in September, when the two were holed up in a trailer for 10 hours in Los Angeles. Along the way, there was a symbolic dinner in Kansas City, Mo., and an important assist from teammate Travis Outlaw.

As a result, Roy and Aldridge have become more than just teammates. They have finally become friends. Real friends.

"We've closed that gap a lot more," Roy said. "In the past, I was over here, and he was over there -- and on the court we would come together. Now, we have grown tighter. We are closer."

Bruce Ely/The OregonianLaMarcus Aldridge (left) and Brandon Roy share a meal out before their season opener in Los Angeles. The two overcame an initial coolness to become friends.

The fans can see it Friday night, at the Blazers' home opener against San Antonio. When the two are out of the game, they now insist on sitting next to each other on the bench.

Eventually, Roy and Aldridge say they hope their off-the-court friendship translates to on-the-court chemistry, not only between themselves, but also for the rest of the team.

"I think it will help the team if me and L.A. have that bond, and they know we have that bond," Roy said. "If they see me and L.A. hanging out off the court, I think it gives them that confidence that we are on the same page. But if they see me and him divided, it may divide the team a little bit."

This relationship has been a subtle development. Coach Nate McMillan said he didn't realize Roy and Aldridge kept their distance off the court.

But Outlaw, who happens to be close with both, has seen this budding friendship develop, and he doesn't underestimate the significance.

"It means the two captains are talking," Outlaw said. "And as a team, we are starting to enjoy it."

A perceived slight

As it turns out, the distance that was created between Aldridge and Roy was all over a misunderstanding.

And ironically, it came at the same time the Blazers came together as a team last season.

It was December, and the struggling Blazers had arrived in Memphis after a spirited and intense practice in San Antonio.

Aldridge, a huge fan of barbecue, felt he was left out of dinner plans by Roy and Outlaw, even though he had called Outlaw earlier in the evening inquiring about dinner plans.

For some reason, Aldridge took it as a slight from Roy.

"I was like 'OK. OK. That's the way it's going to be?'" Aldridge said. "I wasn't (angry), but I felt like if (Roy) wanted me to go, he would have told me. I felt like he wasn't really trying to kick-it with me."

Roy admits that during his first two seasons he reached out to many of his teammates, especially Outlaw and Webster, but consciously left Aldridge alone. In a way, Roy explains, it was out of respect -- thinking that Aldridge was such a strong presence that he didn't need another friend.

But at the same time, ever since they were drafted in the same class, Roy said Aldridge had always been a tough guy for him to get to know. His answers were always short, and there always seemed to be a protective shield around him.

"If you know L.A., he is kind of closed to people, he doesn't open up," Roy said. "You have to kind of earn his trust, and you really have to work to get in LaMarcus' inner circle. And since I didn't try to reach out that much, he was fine with it."

Whatever was missing, Aldridge wasn't ready to add it. He agreed when told that Roy thought he was "closed" when they first met.

"I know I'm like that," Aldridge said. "I don't trust people right away. I think you have to prove to me that you are my friend and that you are going to be my friend for good reason. I'm like that with everyone."

Aldridge said he had bad experiences in the past, when guys would "fake" being friends in order to be seen with him, or guys who would act like his friend only to find out later they were talking behind his back. He said he remained guarded even with his teammates, allowing only close friend Sergio Rodriguez to know where he lived.

He didn't see anything bad in Roy, but at the same time, he didn't see any reason to let his guard down.

"I didn't want to try and be cool to him, and then have him be, 'Nah, I'm good,'" Aldridge said. "And I wasn't going to try and push myself on him."

And so it continued. Two stars. One gap between them. And no progress in sight.

"It wasn't that we didn't like each other," Roy said. "We just didn't understand each other."

That would change over the course of 10 hours on a September day.

"When you are locked in a trailer with someone for a whole day," Aldridge said. "You really have time to talk about everything."

Stuck together

Early in September, Nike flew Aldridge, Roy and Greg Oden to Los Angeles to shoot a commercial featuring LeBron James.

But the day didn't go as planned. There were delays. Postponements. More delays.

The three Blazers were housed in a trailer. Oden, a notorious sleeper, spent most of the day napping in the back.

Aldridge and Roy watched "New Jack City," and found out they both revered the movie as a classic and that both could recite lines at a moment's notice. But after the movie was over, they were left with just themselves. Neither of their cell phones got reception.

"That was the first time we had been together that long, in one spot, without being able to leave or talk to other people," Aldridge said. "We didn't have any outside contact. We were isolated."

They had nothing else to do but talk.

And so it began.

They talked about their parents. Their girlfriends. Cars. Money. Family.

"I mean, we talked about EVERYthing," Roy said. "That's what really broke it down. At one point, he was like, 'You don't have to keep listening to me,' and I was like, 'No. Keep talking. I'm listening.' Because we are in the same situation in a lot of things, and he said some of the same things I had been thinking."

Roy wouldn't reveal specifics on what they talked about.

"It was personal, real personal," Roy said. "And he gave me real advice about it. And I gave him real advice about it, my real opinion about it."

It was clearly a breakthrough. They found they think alike. Have the same worries. Same problems. And the same values.

"It's like when you see a girl, and she's pretty, but you don't know what her conversation is like," Roy said. "Then she starts talking, and she starts talking about politics, and this and that ... and it makes her better. I think that's what we found out about each other. I already knew he was a good basketball player, but you know, I found there was a good dude behind that basketball player."

Aldridge discovered that Roy is more of a straight-shooter than he imagined. And that Roy is more apt to speak out quickly when he feels wronged. Both are traits Aldridge values.

They found they can make each other laugh by reciting their favorite comedians -- Chris Rock and Jamie Foxx.

"I think we are similar and that's why it was so hard for us to get close," Aldridge said. "I think when two guys are so much alike, it's kind of weird at first. You know, you both are real competitive, both have the same worries, the same problems ... it's weird. But then the more you hang out, it becomes normal."

After the commercial shoot in Los Angeles, the two were well on their way to becoming friends. But there was still a question about how this would all work out.

"They both had their superstar attitude," Outlaw said. "They were both like, 'If you are going to talk to me, you are going to have to take the initiative.' That's where I came in. They needed somebody in between."

The middle man

Outlaw is probably the most well-liked person on the team, as players find themselves gravitating to his down-home, easy going, honest ways.

When Aldridge reported to Portland in early September, he found himself hanging out more and more with Outlaw. The man who never revealed to teammates where he lived, not only invited Outlaw over, but Outlaw even stayed the night twice.

Since Outlaw was Roy's best friend on the team, it soon became natural for the three to hang out.

"When he and Travis became buddies, it brought us together," Roy said. "Travis sort of became the middle man."

Pretty soon, though, Outlaw became the odd man out.

"Eventually, they didn't need the middle man no more, so they kind of kicked me out of the way and they started leaving me out of things. I feel so used," Outlaw deadpanned.

The breakthrough was a dinner. That's when Aldridge outlined how he felt Roy excluded him at times. And Roy explained how he felt left out by Aldridge at times.

"It broke the silence of the whole situation," Roy said.

When the Blazers went to Kansas City, Mo., for an exhibition game, the trio planned a dinner.

"Even you, LaMarcus," Roy joked.

The next night, against Atlanta, Roy and Aldridge had a dominant stretch of play during which they fed off each other. One play, Roy would use an Aldridge screen to make a jumper. The next play, Roy would use the screen, then find Aldridge rolling to the basket.

Aldridge remembers going to the bench and sitting next to Roy, feeling a high like no other during his career.

"I told him our two-man game is crazy," Aldridge said.

Roy said he vividly remembers that moment.

"I don't know how John Stockton and Karl Malone felt like, but at that moment, we felt like we had a bond on the floor that we could do something that nobody can stop," Roy said. "And I think the more we become friends, the better that is going to become."